Under the Gun: Norristown raises awareness  and hope  through art

Saturday, June 22, 2013

By JOE BARRONjbarron@timesherald.com

NORRISTOWN The mission statement of the ACPPA Community Art Center has not changed since 2004, when the doors first opened, but over the years, Executive Director Amy Grebe has changed the way she interprets it.

In an interview at her office, located in the basement of Grace Lutheran Church on Haws Avenue, Grebe rattled off the words by heart, as though she were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance: “We provide opportunities that use art as a vehicle for creative self-discovery and community revitalization.”

After taking a breath, she explained with a smile that while her goal remains the same, exposing children to the arts. She prefers now to focus on the creative process, rather than the final product.

“I am less inclined to make good artists than I am to create good citizens,” Grebe said. “We use the creative process to help them envision a possible future for themselves.”

She also provides after school snacks, donated by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

“For some of the kids, it’ll be the last thing they eat until tomorrow morning,” she said.

Like many medium-sized municipalities that have passed their prime, Norristown suffers from a reputation for drugs, petty crime and violence, and its youngest, most vulnerable citizens may grow up feeling they have nothing more to look forward to. They also face problems of their own, such as bullies at school, or neglectful and abusive parents.

“It is not beyond me to take a student home with me when mom kicks them out,” Grebe said.

For such children, the arts provide a path to self-confidence, better grades and a vision of life beyond the streets. On a simpler level, they can offer a diversion from unpleasant realities, or, in Grebe’s words, “Art is the thing they do while they work on their other issues.”

There may be no hard data on success rates for the community art center, but Grebe has many stories to tell about differences her programs have made in children’s lives. There was the boy who threw himself into guitar lessons while his parents were going through a divorce, and the two hostile cliques of sixth-grade girls who learned to cooperate with one another when they staged a fashion show.

“Middle school girls are nasty,” Grebe said. “We found that fashion was the one thing they all had in common.”

Another student at the center was being bullied, Grebe recalled, to the point that his elementary school was no longer a safe place to be. He enrolled in the center’s all-boys hip-hop class. He arrived withdrawn and shy, and hesitant to participate, Grebe said, but when he showed off his new moves at school, the same boys who bullied him wanted to engage with him and learn what he was doing.

“He’s doing better in school because he’s more confident,” Grebe said.

The programs available at the art center include dance, music lessons, pottery, cartooning, anime, drawing and painting. Current enrollment is about 20 to 30 children aged 10 to 14.

“It’s just the right amount,” Grebe said. “We’d love to see more kids here. Unfortunately, it’s completely volunteer-run.”

Many of those volunteers are students at Cabrini College, who donate their time as part of their social justice and American studies courses. They also pick up an essential life skill, according to their professor, Nancy Watterson.

“Mostly, they learn patience,” she said.

While art can give at-risk children a constructive way to use their time, it can also serve their parents as a springboard for discussion about the problems facing the community. In March, Theatre Horizon presented a staged reading of “The Brothers Size,” a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney that deals with a young man’s readjustment to life outside of prison, and older brother’s efforts to straighten him out.

The reading followed by only three months a rash of drug-related shootings over Christmas week, and the choices young men make in life were very much on the minds of the people in attendance.

“There was really spirited conversation afterward,” Erin Reilly, Theatre Horizon’s artistic director, said in an interview. “It was a real diverse group, including some of our subscribers and typical audience members, as well as neighborhood residents … People were really moved by it. That’s what they talked about identifying with these characters and the brothers.”

The reaction solidified Theatre Horizon’s commitment to bring more plays about the African-American experience to Norristown, whether in staged readings or full-scale productions, Reilly said.

“The theater is just one more medium in which to spark dialogue,” she said. “Our goal is to get people talking about issues that are impacting our communities, especially a community like Norristown, where the population is so diverse.

“Plays by African-American playwrights help give one more forum for people of all colors together to talk about issues, and their shared hopes and dreams.”